[myrmidon]

Absolutely! For the record: I don't think that memristors are doomed to be useless-- we'll have to find out.

My point is just that even with research-tech that sounds absolutely amazing (low power, persistent, high density) you just need to fail on a single dimension for it to basically become irrelevant.

This is also why its so easy for media to overhype research results, which (predictably) results in continuous disappointments and loss of trust (of the public) in science reporting and/or even science in general...